Month: February 2016

Crete, like most islands in the Mediterranean, has always been a crossroads of civilisations. It has been inhabited since at least 6000 BCE, when migrants from Anatolia in present-day Turkey crossed the sea and settled on the island. Some 3000 years later, Crete was part of an extensive naval trade…

‘Filibustering’ refers to politicians holding endless speeches in parliament, touching upon all sorts of issues that are more or less off topic. The sole intention is to prevent the debate from being closed so that a vote can be called. As far as I know, we find the oldest known…

Paphos and environs are a good spot to learn more about Cyprus’ complex history. Monuments of most of the civilisations that have been present on the island can be seen here. From the cult of the goddess Aphrodite to the Lusignan dynasty, and from the Ottoman Turks to the British…

Polis is the Greek word for ‘city’ or ‘city state’. The Polis I discuss here is a town of some 3.500 inhabitants in the northwest of Cyprus. It is also known as Polis Chrysochous, ‘city of the golden land’. The town itself is small but interesting, and further to the…

Kourion – Curium in Latin – was an important city state in Ancient Cyprus. It flourished during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, until it was almost completely destroyed by two earthquakes in the fourth century CE. A rebuilt Kourion was an easy target for Arab raiders, who destroyed the city…

On 22 October 1383, King Fernando I of Portugal died after a reign of sixteen years. His death effectively ended the House of Burgundy, which had ruled Portugal since the early twelfth century. The king had no male heir, just a daughter, Infanta Beatriz (1372-1408). She had been married off…

High up in the Serra de Montejunto mountain range is a building that looks a lot like a church. But it is actually an old ice factory, now a national monument. The ice produced here was used for consumption and – in the pre-refrigerator age – for cooling things. In…

Modern western democracies have a strict separation of military and civil offices, but this was not the case in the Roman Republic (ca. 509-27 BCE). It was not until the third century CE, during the Imperial era, that such a separation was introduced. During the Republican era, politicians were also…

Affirmative action in favour of minorities or the politically disadvantaged is not a modern phenomenon. It was also known in Antiquity. In the fourth century BCE, a form of affirmative action was introduced in the Roman Republic. The plans to introduce it sparked a heated debate. ‘Positive discrimination’ was just…

Rome began as a collection of villages on several hills near the river Tiber. Life there was neither comfortable, nor safe. War was always looming. Neighbouring tribes and cultures envied Rome for its favourable position on the Tiber, from which it controlled the salt trade in Central Italy. Rome itself…

Walking through the streets of Rome, visitors are reminded of Italy’s dark, fascist past in many places. I am talking about Italy in the twenties, thirties and forties of the previous century, Benito Mussolini’s Italy. Sometimes the visitor is hardly aware that he or she is near or even on…

On Sunday 24 November 2013, pope Francis led a mass on Saint Peter’s square to conclude the Year of Faith. My friend and I were there. The Eucharist started at 10:30 AM, but those who wanted to have a good spot had to show up in the Vatican by 7:30…

Santarém is the capital of the Santarém District in the Ribatejo region in central Portugal. It is by no means a large city, with a population of about 30.000. Yet it has many interesting monuments and is definitely worth a visit. Just do not go there on a Monday or…

The description of Tomar in our travel guide was particularly promising: a picturesque town in the shadow of a crusader castle and monastery perched on a hill. Since both the Convento de Christo and the Castelo dos Templários are listed as UNESCO World Heritage, we decided to take the car…